Most hockey fans know who TJ Oshie and Jonathan Quick are, but today, an entire nation now knows them, as well.

After USA and Russia played a marvelous 65 minutes of hockey, the skills competition commenced and the US bested the Russians, 3-2, after eight rounds of the shootout.

The rules are different in International Hockey so after three shooters, a coach can choose whatever player he wants and can keep repeating that selection. Team USA Coach Dan Bylsma stuck to his guns and kept throwing #74 out there and he delivered 4 of 6 times, three times via the “five hole,” to win it for USA. Quick, who won the Stanley Cup with the Kings in 2012, stopped 5 of 8 tries for the victory in net.

Wow, what a hockey game.

This was no “Miracle on Ice” from 1980. It is not even close and let’s be clear about that since 1980 was a mismatch on paper, but somehow a bunch of college kids beat one of the greatest teams of all time.

This game was a fairly even matchup. Team USA has an excellent squad but so do the Russians, who also have home ice. The perceived weaknesses on each club are their respective blue lines. Coming into the Olympics, you would have thought the Russian defense was as bad as the 2013 Washington Redskins, based on the pre tourney analysis. But they quickly proved that theory wrong playing excellent defensive hockey and only allowing two USA power play goals (Cam Fowler and James VanRiemsdyk).

Russia had some great chances and their power play, on paper, looks deadly. It features Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk (2 goals), and Evgeni Malkin. Talk about some serious fire power there! Somehow the US managed to hold the Russians to one tally on five chances in this one.

One thing both teams coaches will not like were the penalties each squad took. Bylsma can’t be happy about Dustin Brown’s giveaway and then penalty in the last 10 minutes. That infraction gave the Russians the power play that they tied the game on via Datsyuk’s second goal. Conversely, Alexander Radulov took two selfish penalties and the US scored on both. The only thing saving Radulov from a trip to Siberia was his great screen on the tying tally and his assist on Datsyuk’s first goal.

On that first goal, Datsyuk broke free from Max Pacioretty in the neutral zone and split Brooks Orpik and John Carlson for the game’s opening tally. Bylsma clearly wasn’t pleased with Carlson and Pacioretty because they didn’t see much ice time after that, but Orpik was just as much to blame as foot speed isn’t one of #44’s strengths. But Orpik kept getting put on the ice by Bylsma even after the miscue (Note: I wonder what coach he plays for during the regular season? Hmmm….).

After the Russians tied the game on Datsyuk’s PP tally, a goal that appeared to make it 3-2 for the home squad was correctly disallowed. Quick had inadvertenly dislodged the net on an earlier save and the referees didn’t see it and let play continue. Shortly thereafter, a Russian point shot was deflected and barely went in under the cross bar towards the right post. It was that right post that was off of its peg and pushed back a bit. After a review, which initially many thought was due to a potential high stick, the goal was taken down due to the net issue. It was the right call based on IIHF rules and I assert that there was no way to allow it based on physics, alone. If the net is in its proper position there the puck may have struck the cross bar and never went in to begin with. Bottom line is the right call was made on the ice after review, although it would have been better had the zebras noticed the dislodged cage sooner.

This win was big because it sets up the USA to place first in their group tomorrow with a victory over Slovenia (1-1), a team that is led by the Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings. Winning the group means a bye into the quarterfinals. Conversely, Russia will likely get a bye, as well, if they beat the Slovaks by being the best second place finisher. The other teams that will get a bye are Canada, who will likely be the #1 seed, and Sweden, who are ravaged with injuries. Both Henrik Zetterberg and Henrik Sedin are out hurt but they still managed to carry their group with three wins.

However, with Sweden’s injuries, this is shaping up to be a three horse race for the Gold Medal between Canada, Russia, and the United States.

In summary, this was a big win but this was not a “Miracle” type victory. Make no mistake about it, though, this game mattered A LOT, to both squads.

The two countries are nowhere close to allies and their are serious political differences.

The Cold War is over, but a win over the Russians still carries enormous weight in the USA.

The Americans played a strong game and won on the home team’s soil to set themselves up for a run at a medal.

It is awfully difficult to win a championship in professional sports but heading into 2013-14 that is once again the goal of the Washington Capitals, who have yet to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup since their inception in 1974. The Caps, who have made the playoffs the last six years, have another quality team as they prepare to open their season against the defending champs, the Chicago Blackhawks, in the Windy City on Tuesday night at 8pm on NBCSN.

On Sunday, Caps General Manager George McPhee made several moves to help put some clarity to the opening night roster culminating with a trade of center Matheiu Perreault to the Anaheim Ducks for a 4th round pick and AHLer John Mitchell. In addition, several players were sent to Hershey, including defenesemen Tyson Strachan and Dmitry Orlov. For now, here is what the Caps roster looks like:

The move of Perreault was predicted here last week and makes sense from a hockey and salary cap standpoint. This Caps team needed to get bigger and more powerful up front and Wilson’s outstanding camp made keeping him up with the main club, rather than shipping him back to a weaker league (OHL), an easy decision. The 19 year old, who was the 16th overall pick in the 2012 NHL entry draft, brings a dimension that this Washington team needs more of in the post season: size and the ability to score the tough goals in close. Six months with Coach Adam Oates and some highly talented teammates is what is needed for Wilson to continue his development, the OHL is just not going to help him get any better.

As for the rest of the squad, the strengths appear to be in goal and up front. Braden Holtby has established himself as a number one goalie and has the chance to move into the elite category with a very strong season. As McPhee told the media last Tuesday, to win the Stanley Cup you have to have great goaltending. #70 is the guy being counted on to deliver that, but Neuvirth is a more than capable net minder and will be needed to play well so that Washington can qualify for the post season in a very competitive Metropolitan Division.

At forward, the Capitals have some serious depth on the wings but still aren’t sure who is going to be the third line center. Backstrom has the first line locked up with Grabovski manning the second unit. The club could go with Beagle as the 3rd line center and Latta pivoting the 4th to start the season, but that depends on the health of the others, primarily Laich, who has been battling a hip flexor issue. Right wing is just loaded up with Ovechkin, Brouwer, Fehr, Wilson, and Ward. Both Fehr and Erat were tried at center this preseason by Oates with some success, so the head coach has lots of options. Johansson could play 3rd line center at some point too. The Caps have not had as talented a crew of forwards to start the season in many years and with the players they have there is lots of room for flexibility.

On defense, the top three is awfully good with Green, Alzner, and Carlson. After that, it gets dicey. Erksine was super last spring in the regular season but is he really a top 4 d-man? #4 will have a chance to prove it starting this week. Oleksy came out of seemingly nowhere to take a 3rd pair spot in the spring and Hillen overcame an early season injury to play a lot of quality minutes last year. Carrick was the biggest surprise of training camp, has great offensive skills and his hockey IQ is high. Learning to play defense in the NHL is harder than any other position so Washington has to be careful to not put too much on the 19 year old, who has incredible potential. The organization still has high hopes for Orlov, but given his injury situation last season, starting him in Hershey made too much sense. The 2009 2nd round pick will play top pair minutes in the AHL and can hone his craft for what appears to be an inevitable jump back to the NHL at some point during the 82 game season.

Special teams will be an important component of Washington’s success. Last season the Caps were #1 in the NHL with the power play (26.8%). You can expect it to remain at least top 5 and Oates and assistant coach Blaine Forsythe will continually be tweaking things to counter opposition tactics. As for the penalty kill, Laich stated on Tuesday that is one of the areas this Capitals club will have to improve in if they want to do well in the regular season and playoffs. The PK has been one of the team’s weaknesses the last few years and it was 27th out of 30 in 2012-13 with a success rate of only 77.9%.

In summary, the expectations are high for this Capitals team. The playoffs are not a given, but if this club can stay relatively healthy, then they have the talent to compete for the division title. Every team in the Metropolitan Division has its issues. The Penguins are the pick of many but their goaltending and team defense certainly has its question marks. Will the Rangers respond positively to a new coach in Alain Vigneault? How will the Devils do with the departure of Ilya Kovalchuk? The Flyers added Vinny Lecavalier but will Ray Emery or Steve Mason step up and be a top goalie in a pressure packed Philly market? Are the Islanders ready to take the next step up the ladder or was their playoff run last spring a one time deal? Is Columbus going to play like the team that nearly qualified for the post season last spring or the cellar dweller crew that started 2013? Finally, will Cam Ward returning in net for Carolina propel them to a winning season? Nothing is set in stone heading into the season and in the salary cap era every team has holes and/or issues. What is important is that the Capitals get off to a good start since coming from behind in the standings is not going to be as achievable as it was in the Southeast Division.

As many of you know, I am not a fan of referees. I probably use the #badzebras hash tag more than anyone on twitter, heck some might even claim I invented it.

But watching the Capitals 3-2 loss to New Jersey tonight, you aren’t going to get me blaming the referees for yet another Washington loss.

Were some of the calls questionable in this one? Yeah, maybe so, but good teams and smart ones at that, don’t put themselves in the position this Caps team does repeatedly to give the zebras a chance to whistle them for infractions. Lack of talent combined with low hockey IQ led to the penalty parade that was the third period, one in which Washington was called for six infractions and resulted in two lengthy 5 on 3 Devils power plays.

Simply put, you play like that and you deserve to lose.

Combine that with the fact that Washington was dominated at even strength all night, and it is amazing that the Caps even had a chance to win this one going into the final frame.

For that, everyone can once again thank Braden Holty, who was brilliant in net, especially in the first period when the Capitals were sleep walking.

The only other reason the Caps were winning after 40 minutes was their power play. They tallied twice on it despite giving up an inexcusable shorthanded goal to Patrick Elias. Washington went 2 for 4 on the night with the advantage but surrendered the shorty and they also gave up the game winner while shorthanded. So the special teams battle was even at two a piece.

Look no further than the tying goal for why the Capitals lost. Mike Ribeiro lost a key defensive zone draw and then he failed to cover Andrei Loktionov as the Devils center went to the net. The result was a lay up for the New Jersey forward on a Holtby rebound. Lazy hockey there, plain and simple.

I’ve chronicled all season the lack of talent on this Washington roster, especially up front. They could not afford to lose Brooks Laich and with Mike Green now out on the back end for the second straight game players on the downside of their careers, like Tom Poti, end up in the game. Poti was whistled for interference just before the game winner.

So the nightmare season continues for Washington as they drop to 5-10-1 and they remain in last place in the Eastern Conference.

Saturday at noon they get Martin Brodeur, Ilya Kovalchuk, and company again at the Verizon Center. The Devils are a talented team that plays smart. Right now the Caps are nearly the complete opposite.

So blame the referees all you want for this loss, but if you peel back the onion and do the real analysis, you’ll soon find out the real reason you are crying.